Daily Times

KARACHI: The commercial operations at South Asia Pakistan Terminals (SAPT), Pakistan’s first deep sea container terminal project, could not start even after the lapse of 6 years mainly due to lack of homework, including dredging, to be done by the concerned departments.

The inauguration of the terminal has been postponed again by the authorities which was scheduled with Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, in December 2016. The cancellation of inauguration is the fourth in a row as previously the ground breaking was scheduled in April, August and October 2016.

SAPT, the country’s first deep container terminal, is developed with an investment of $1.4 billion, a joint venture of Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and Hutchinson Port Holdings Limited (HPH), the Hong Kong-based parent of SAPT. According to the concerned officials, the depth of channels are not more than 10 meters which needs to be dredged up to 15 meter to accommodate mother-ships, which would be dredged up to 18 metres by 2018.

Sources, privy to the matter, told that the contract for dredging of port channels has not been awarded so far though a Belgium company, Van Oord, has been finalized. If these delay will continue, the terminal will neither be inaugurated in January nor it will be made operational by the first quarter of next year, sources added.

Port authorities along with officials of terminals are mulling over to launch alternate arrangement to advance the project including series test operations which began with the arrival of first container carrier, APL Japan.

SAPT has played its part to install infrastructure of ports including cranes, port logistics, power generation and related apparatus which it has completed with the investment of $600 million. KPT invested $800 million to develop supporting infrastructure including dredging, breakwaters, key wall and roads. The dredging and road construction is still not completed.

SAPT has been built for accommodating containers with a capacity of 3.1 million TEUs, more than Pakistan’s present overall capacity for handling containers which stands at 2.5 million TEUs.

State-of-the-art technology has been installed at the facility, which includes automated gates with identity cards checking system, RTGCs with position determination systems, remote controlled cranes (operated with CROS), control tower coordination, CCTV and trunk radio systems, mobile terminal messaging system, etc.. presently the Chinese technologists are working on the project who , according to the operators, would also train local staff.

SAPT has installed five cranes including four berths set up on the area of one kilometer long.

The project has been delayed for six years which was supposed to be accomplished in April 2011 as per agreement between the terminal operator and the government authority. The inordinate delays in the project development have cost billions to the investors.

The development of the port will not only enhance the capacity of cargo handling in Pakistan but will also ease off pressure on the operating ports witnessing overflow of cargoes. The port will help greatly to increase business activities of the exporters and importers as overall shipment cycle of consignment has been reduced from 60 days to 40 days roughly which not only reduce its expense but enhance its capacity to produce more in the same resources.